8:51am.

After more than a dozen minutes since he drove off from the battlefield and as he closed in on the boundary leading to the fringe of the Wastes, Leon suddenly noticed that he could no longer hear footsteps behind him.

The mutated Neon Beast Tiger was no longer pursuing him.

Stunned, he looked at the side mirror of the Karaki CT-3X and that was when he saw the mutated beast lying on the ground in the distance.

Its massive frame was already beginning to be obscured by the dust.

The D Rank Neon Beast was dead!

Leon was stunned. 'It's dead? Just like that?'

'Is it because of the injuries? But that's not possible'. His eyes narrowed in thought. 'If an E Rank Gene Augur could be that tenacious, a D Rank Gene Augur definitely has to be even more terrifying'.

His brain whirred. 'Then is it because of the Artifact, Rose Bishop?'

'Does the ability Parasite used to sacrifice his life for the D Rank Gene Augur's descent has a time duration?' His eyes gleamed, he believed that this was the correct answer.

Leon heaved a sigh of relief, the danger was finally over.

This did not make him change his plans though. He continued driving from the territory of the Wastes occupied by people, driving into the wild fringe where only Neon Beasts occupied.

A short time later, the familiar HUD screen of the ChronoSystem lit up before him again.

DING!

~----~

[You have completed System Mission: Parasite]

[Mission Summary:]

*Your deal with Alexander Cain enabled you to equip the rebels of Community G with over a hundred pistols and thousands of ammunition with the money of the enemy.

*Your modified drone blueprint helped in giving your crew the information advantage over the Zmer gang.

*You participated in the Battle on the Road, playing an important role in catching Mr. Representative Ben off-guard and eradicating his escort force.

*You participated in the Showdown against the Zmer gang, playing an important role in eradicating the mundane thugs, the Ascended warriors, Parasite and his D Rank Artifact, Rose Bishop.

*You ingeniously led the D Rank mutated Neon Beast away from your teammates, preventing the fate of them being annihilated by the rabid Beast.

*You lost a crewmate.

…

Watching as the lines of text appeared in his vision, Leon felt like he was in a Supreme Court where he was receiving judgement from the System.

When he read that last line, his heart tightened.

The System continued.

…

[Mission Completion Rating: B+]

[You have been rewarded with +50 Data Points, 1 Mechanist Knowledge Scroll on Electromagnetic Energy Manipulation, and the Core Material of an Electromagnetic Pulse Gun- Ferromagnetic Iron.]

…

[Current Data Points: 139]

~----~

Leon's eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the rewards for the mission that he got this time. 'The mission completion rating is B, yet the rewards are far higher than my previous mission where the completion rating was A+?'

'Is this because of the difficulty difference of both missions? Probably'.

Despite his thoughts, he could not help a smile finally creeping into his face as he stared at the rewards.

Just like he suspected, even though he didn't yet know the origin of the System, it was clear that its purpose was to accelerate his growth.

Afterall, in exchange for helping her, the first price that Talia paid was giving him a blueprint to an E Rank Electromagnetic Pulse Gun.

And now, not only did the System reward him with a scroll to learn the secrets of electromagnetic energy manipulation, it also rewarded him with the core material that he needed to craft his first true E Rank weapon.

Leon was thrilled.

He continued driving the super bike and a few minutes later, he finally left the habitable areas of the Wastes and returned to the true hazardous domain.

Bzzz!

He felt it immediately, the subtle shift in the atmosphere, the thickness of the ADE radiation and corruption in the air.

But Leon was unfazed.

Afterall, with his passive trait, Temporal Anomaly, he was perhaps the only existence in all of Neo-Tokara who was immune to ADE corruption.

The last time, after the siege of the cargo trailer when they left to Community G, it took them hours to cover the distance on foot.

But this time on a Karaki CT-3X super bike, it took Leon just 20 minutes to arrive in front of the familiar cargo trailer where the crew had their stand against a flood of beasts, protecting Talia.

He stopped the bike on getting here as he took in the view.

Staring at the partially ruined cargo trailer, he felt nostalgic. He forged one of the most unforgettable memories in his life since awakening here.

Staring at the cargo trailer also made him remember Rex, and immediately his mood soured.

With a grimace, he started the bike and continued his journey.

Less than 5 minutes later, he arrived back at where it all started, the derelict SpaceX facility where he woke up.

'SpaceX'.

The name rolled off easily in Leon's tongue which told him that it was a name he was familiar with, and yet, he didn't remember what exactly the name signified.

He grabbed his head, feeling the familiar migraine of his fragmented memories returning then he sighed and approached the familiar exit hatch that led inside his shelter.

["PROJECT GENESIS – SITE 03"]

'Project Genesis'. Leon stood in front of the hatch and stared at the cracked inscription for a long time.

'I wonder if I'll remember some of my memories after I become E Rank'. He thought hopefully though he believed that it was just his wishful thinking.

To remember his memories through the System, he had to become B Rank and unlock the Memory Reconstruction Function of the System.

Leon stood in front of the door for a long time, then he turned and looked into the horizon. 'It's just been more than a week since my awakening and I'm already about to attempt my first Trial'.

'I wonder how long it'll take me to become B Rank'.

With that thought, he finally carefully pushed the Karaki CT-3X super bike through the exit hatch, carrying it in with his superhuman strength.

"Ascendancy is an act of going against the world, and it doesn't come without consequences". Leon muttered; he never forgot Talia's words.

He knew that attempting a Trial would affect the world, calling forth all the Neon Beasts in the region to assault the Ascendant trying to climb the ranks of power of the world.

The only reason why Leon had the confidence to attempt it alone with no helpers was because of his shelter.

He intended to seal the hatch from inside, and judging from the fact that this shelter had likely been in this wasteland for over 7 centuries without collapsing, Leon believed that it could keep him safe from a Neon Beast tide.

Before attempting the Trial, he also had plans to reinforce the shelter a bit, making it more capable of resisting damage.

He also had a faint hope.

'This facility have been here for centuries, yet no one detected it in this world of powerful Ascended'. His lips curled into a smile. 'Maybe the world is protecting this place, who knows?'

'Maybe Neon Beasts won't be able to find here'.

Despite his thoughts though, he was still going to reinforce the shelter properly to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Immediately after he carried the Karaki CT-3X super bike inside, Leon rested for a few minutes and then he started working on reinforcing the shelter.

Staying in a wasteland of scrap metal and wastes, as a Mechanist, Leon was right at home where he belonged.

He had so many materials to work with.

After a few dozen minutes, he was satisfied but he didn't attempt to start the Trial immediately. Instead, he sat down and accessed his System Inventory, bringing out a brown scroll with strange inscriptions.

~----~

[You have accessed System Inventory!]

[You have retrieved an item from your Inventory: Mechanist Knowledge Scroll- Electromagnetic Energy Manipulation]

~----~

As soon as the brown scroll appeared in Leon's hand, he admired it for a few seconds and then to his shock, the scroll disintegrated.

"…!" He was stunned.

"It disintegrated?!"

Back in Community G, Leon already forced Kain to teach him a lot of essential knowledge that a Mechanist should know, and one of them was about the knowledge that are useful to Ascended.

According to Kain, Mechanists can directly absorb the knowledge of blueprints, learning it instantly but for Mechanist knowledge to become an Ascended and to also learn new knowledge of the Class, it was back to old-school learning style to learn them.

A Mechanist had to take his time to properly read and understand the contents of a knowledge scroll to learn the corresponding knowledge.

And now, the knowledge scroll that Leon held just disintegrated!

It didn't just disintegrate. The moment the scroll disintegrated, Leon felt a bunch of knowledge and theories that he didn't know before enter his head.

It was just like when he learned a new blueprint.

His eyes widened. "Is this because of the System?"

And just like that, an activity that was supposed to take him at least a few minutes and at most a few hours was completed just like that.

Leon grinned. "I'm beginning to love the System even more".

He still didn't immediately attempt the Trial after that. Instead, he went to sleep inside the shelter to properly rest after how much he exerted himself today.

He also had a few injuries that needed to heal.

He would only attempt an Ascension Trial when he was in optimum shape both physically and mentally.

…

10:08am.

After an hour since returning to Community G, a period of time which Talia and her crewmates took to rest and accept reality and to also recover their depleted ADE, they finally got ready to move again.

They were still tired, they were still injured, but today was the day of the Uprising and they wanted to erase all traces of the Zmer gang once and for all.

With Parasite and all his Ascended subordinates dead, they now set their sights on his base.

With Brad directing them from the cell tower base, they drove the military-grade trucks back to the secret entrance of the underground bunker of the Zmer gang.

Talia didn't just go with her crewmates. Though Gary and Mary stayed behind to take care of the wounded, more than 50 rebels still followed them to the underground bunker for the final raid.

For the next dozen minutes, they swept through the underground bunker, searching for any lingering thugs and traps that the rebels may have missed during the initial sweep.

But there were no thugs.

The survivors of the Zmer gang already ran for their lives, either running to other Waste communities or leaving the Wastes entirely.

There were no traps too.

Afterall, before today, Parasite never believed that the rebels of the Freegrid Collective had what it took to overthrow him so he never bothered to set traps.

Talia easily took over the underground bunker.

That day, the Freegrid Collective gained another base of operations in Community G after the cell tower base.

After that, Talia looked at her crewmates. "Let's find Leon".

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